Alex Rawnsley's inside look at the BCHL's Powell River Kings

Kings Island Trio

The first visit to the Island Savings Centre this season, an 8-4 win for Stefan Wornig and the Kings

The Kings hit the road for a 3-in-3 weekend that’ll see them look to close the gap over division leading Nanaimo, and create some buffer on other teams in the Island Division. It begins tonight in Duncan at the Island Savings Centre as the Kings tackle the Cowichan Valley Capitals. On Saturday it’s over to Victoria to face the Victoria Grizzlies for the first time this season before wrapping the trip in Alberni against the Bulldogs.

All three games are live on the Kings Broadcast Network, with pre-game shows beginning at 6:30 tonight and tomorrow, and then a 1:30 start on Sunday afternoon. Saturday’s contest in Victoria is also live on 90.1 CJMP across the airwaves in Powell River. To tune in, you can click here.

Here are some game notes on Friday’s contest in Duncan against the Capitals:

The Kings are riding a 3-game winning streak, their longest of the season, after wins in Prince George and at home to Nanaimo by 3-1 and 3-0 scores. All three games have been have been similar in the way that the Kings haven’t had a ‘rest’ in trying to close out a game and have had to earn a comfortable lead in all three games in the 3rd period. In Prince George, the Spruce Kings pressed late and the Kings successfully defended a 3-0 lead for a 3-2 win. On Friday, it wasn’t until Brent Lashuk scored an empty netter with 13 seconds left that the Kings could feel ‘safe’. Saturday’s shutout was a little easier, but a 2-0 lead is nothing in the BCHL and it wasn’t until the 3rd goal in the final period that the Kings built a buffer and took much of the life away from Nanaimo.

The Kings are 2-0 against Cowichan this season in two vastly different games. First, an 8-4 result on the first weekend of the home/away portion of the season, then a week later it was a close, tense 2-1 game that came down to the final second. Both Stefan Wornig and Brett Magnus have registered victories.

Cowichan are struggling, sitting 5th in a 5-team Island Division and are sitting at a record of 3-14 on the year. The team is coming off a 6-1 defeat to the Alberni Valley Bulldogs last Sunday, and prior to that won a 6-5 OT game at home to West Kelowna. While the wins have been close this year (2-1 vs Coquitlam, 6-5 vs West Kelowna and 5-3 (with an empty net) vs Victoria…the losses recently have been big ones including 8-1 to Nanaimo and 7-3/8-1 against Alberni in the last couple of weeks.

The Capitals looked to add some depth this week by trading leading scorer Brayden Gelsinger to the Warriors in exchange for Kade Kehoe and Adam Osczevski. This after dealing Colton Kehler, another talented forward, a couple of weeks ago to Langley. Both Kehoe and Osczevski will make their Cowichan debuts this evening.

The Kings will get Stefan Wornig back and available for duty this weekend after missing 6 games and that’s good news for a team that’s started the same goaltender for 12-straight contests. Magnus looks to have found himself in the BCHL now, earning the BCHL Player of the Week nomination for his 2-0 weekend against Nanaimo, surrendering 1 goal on almost 70 shots.

No major point/goal streaks to talk about to start the weekend, as Kurt Keats was held off the scoresheet for the first time in 12 games. In that stretch he put up 21 points. It’s a good news/bad news situation as obviously the streak must start over, but the last time he was kept off the scoresheet for a game, he returned to score a hattrick and add one assist…against the Capitals. Saturday’s 3-0 win against Nanaimo was just the 3rd time he’s been off the scoresheet this season, each of the previous two times he’s scored in the next game.

Again, game time is 7:00pm tonight in Duncan. Pre-game show is live on the Kings Broadcast Network beginning at 6:30pm.